The spin disappears and nothing changes much: a second Test preview, of sorts...
Now—an Ollie Pope quote; one of this scribe's favourite English batters:
Sounding like this:
"This team (England presumably) have no fears of losing; even if we go down 0–2, there’s a way to win 3–2; that’s how we want to play, without fear, always."
Thank you, Ollie. Keep batting, please!
Nothing, not even Ollie Pope, can change my mind.
Mark Wood, the bowler Australia would least like to face at Lord's, is once again not available for selection. Wood is comfortably the quickest bowler on either list when up and running, and a greenish Lord’s wicket would have been all the tonic he needed to crank up the speed dial. Sadly, for England, he will be keeping the bench warm again. Australia will be hiding wry smiles.
Next in the waiting room is the recalled Moeen Ali, who, as expected, is not able to take his place due to a blistered, spinning finger. England made a token backflip by calling Rehan Ahmed into its squad as cover for Ali, and then, as expected, they opted for four quicks and Joe Root as their spinning option.
Ahmed has had a tough summer to date, taking a grand total of six wickets from eight bowling innings. One of the drawbacks of playing with cellar dwellers like Leicestershire is that you rarely get two bowls in the same game. My source at Grace Road speculates that his batting might overtake the bowling down the track—a la Steve Smith—and England can only hope!
Jimmy Anderson remains—he’s been historically proficient at this. The ‘Burnley Lara’ will be wishing for a better return this time around, though—with the ball!
Anderson’s golfing buddy and once villain of the peace, Stuart Broad, will return to one of his favourite stomping grounds. Broad opened up Ireland’s top order a few weeks back, running the ball down the hill from the pavilion end. He will want more of the same—my source says he has ‘circle wicket celebration mapped".
My (or is it our?) source also added: Anderson had a quiet word with ol’ Broady after the dust settled at Edgbaston, reminding him to keep a lid on the celebrations until his ol’ mate had a couple of poles in the bank—time will tell!
And to the new pantomime villain, Olle Robinson, who will take his place despite the comments of forgotten Australian captain Michael Clarke: I only offer these due to Clarke’s inference that Counties have now become Towns. It went something like this:
"He needs to shoosh. If England were fully fit, he wouldn’t get a game. If Jofra Archer and Mark Wood had been playing, he wouldn’t be." (I’m confused, but you get the drift.) And then the killer blow: "I don’t know what town he plays for—he’d be back playing clubbies." So magnanimous of the young Pup.
It should be said that Ollie Robinson will be a handful if this wicket plays how it looks.
And finally, Josh Tongue, the Lord’s specialist.
Clearly, England was setting Mark Wood for Lord’s.
Captain Ben Stokes told the press Tuesday, "We wanted to play Mark Wood; we felt that he could definitely start the game, but after conversations, we felt the extra week would give him the chance to get his loads up and the opportunity to play a full part from Leeds onwards." Ahh, you have to like loads if you’re an Aussie!
Tongue took a well-deserved five-wicket haul on debut at Lord's earlier this month, and England will be hopeful he can have more success against Steve Smith after dismissing him in a ‘town’ match earlier in the season. Smith was playing ‘town cricket’ for Sussex.
Selecting an all-seam attack affords Stokes some wiggle room as he continues to face issues with his left knee; you would think his bowling role will be minimal—or when Usman Khawaja gets to 200 for the game.
Jonny Bairstow—we didn’t even mention him. No spinner means the obvious; standing back, he looks serviceable when taking the ball to his right. Going left is a different story. Australia could have up to six southpaws in their order (work that out if you can?).
He looked too narrow when Broad and co. bowled around the wicket. I would suggest standing half a step wider and giving up the leg side grab. And ask Joe Root to stand half a step closer at first slip. Or, just bite your ego and play Ben Foakes and politely ask Ben Duckett to warm the bench—who opens can be raffled—Stokes would likely be up for it.
Australia, what do they have to worry about?
Not too much. Other than fitting two of these three into a winning team—Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitch Starc—there’s a left-field argument that Starc should play:
If he does, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon will bat 9 and 10, respectively, on past form, which is desirable for Australia. Just saying.
It might not matter—I believe the Test world champions have their hosts covered.
Let the fun begin. As always, thank you for being here, and enjoy watching wherever you are.
I thought by now your loyalties would at least be split
Getting a bit precious aren’t you Nick😄? Town/county what’s the diff? Tongue has been the weapon.. two great bowls…